The possible oil well sits deep within the Taklamakan desert Credit: Google Maps. China began gaining an interest in rocketry and missiles before the launch of Russia's Sputnik in 1957.

Kalahari Desert, Extending from Botswana into areas of South Africa and Namibia, the Kalahari Desert's 900,000 sq km area is unusually diverse in climatic and physical features.

News; Weird News; Weird Science; Google Maps users convinced they've found secret rocket hidden deep in desert After spotting the odd-looking site deep in the Taklamakan desert people think they ...

About 85 per cent of the 337,600 sq km (130,350 square mile) desert is covered by shifting sand dunes, earning the Taklamakan the label “sea of death”. Advertisement SCMP Series ...

A traveller’s search for a route around western China's Lop Desert, in 1995, meant bartering for rides and avoiding rip-off merchants in towns with such evocative names as ‘Asbestos Deposit’.

China has finished a 46-year campaign to encircle its largest desert with trees, part of national efforts to end desertification and curb the sandstorms that plague parts of the country during the ...